From the first day of the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation, on November 1, 2009, we have pursued Governor Patrick’s vision for our organization– to lead the nation in transportation excellence. We knew the emphasis on customer service would be one way to restore people’s trust in us as stewards of the Commonwealth’s transportation system.

In 15 months, MassDOT has taken many steps to improve customer service. Our managers are out in our system engaging our customers. We are in the second phase of our "You Move Massachusetts" statewide public outreach effort. We have a started a "How Can I Help You Today" initiative with our front-line workers who interact with customers every day. We have a more customer-focused website that is being upgraded continually- a growing web presence that includes our most popular RMV "branch" that handles 1.5 million transactions every year. We have this very active transportation blog. If you are interested in Massachusetts transportation news and information, be sure to check our blog frequently.

A great example of our rapid development of customer service tools can be found on Twitter. If you are reading this blog, you probably know that MassDOT is tweeting regularly at www.twitter.com/massdot

We believe it is an important and growing tool that allows timely interaction with our customers. Since MassDOT's first tweet on March 25, 2009, we have sent more than 2,700 tweets with news and photos, information about public meetings, traffic updates, and links to our blog, road, bridge, and transit websites, and news articles. We also monitor Twitter for questions and concerns and answer those when we can.

Twitter's immediacy has been particularly helpful during weather events affecting transportation, from last year's floods to this winter's two major snow events. MassDOT's first priority is safety- clearing state roads quickly and efficiently. My thanks to the hundreds of MassDOT employees and hired contractors for their successful efforts this week and in previous events.

And as our crews do their work, Twitter is one way to keep our customers informed before they travel. Wednesday this week, in one 24-hour period, we tweeted 49 times and “retweeted” 13 service updates from the MBTA twitter account, www.twitter.com/mbtagm Customers are responding- we added 192 new followers to our Twitter account between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning. We are approaching 5,000 followers and expect that number to grow.

Social media is still relatively new and evolving. I know that it is not for everyone, but it is an effective tool for an increasingly large part of our community. We can and will do more as we pursue all avenues to communicate with our customers and gain the public's trust. We invite your feedback on this blog and on Twitter.

Recent Posts

Today, MassDOT Secretary Stephanie Pollack announced Brian Shortsleeve will serve as the Chief Administrator for the MBTA, working alongside the newly appointed Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB), interim General Manager Frank DePaola, who will continue in his current role focusing solely on operations and …Continue Reading MassDOT Secretary Announces MBTA Leadership Team

The Longfellow Bridge Rehabilitation Project moves forward with demolition work that will require bridge closures. MassDOT’s contractor, White-Skanska-Consigli JV (WSC), will periodically close the Longfellow Bridge to all vehicular traffic beginning on Saturday, August 1 through Friday, August 21. The closures are necessary to safely …Continue Reading Longfellow Bridge: August Closures Update

Recent Posts

Today, MassDOT Secretary Stephanie Pollack announced Brian Shortsleeve will serve as the Chief Administrator for the MBTA, working alongside the newly appointed Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB), interim General Manager Frank DePaola, who will continue in his current role focusing solely on operations and …Continue Reading MassDOT Secretary Announces MBTA Leadership Team

The Longfellow Bridge Rehabilitation Project moves forward with demolition work that will require bridge closures. MassDOT’s contractor, White-Skanska-Consigli JV (WSC), will periodically close the Longfellow Bridge to all vehicular traffic beginning on Saturday, August 1 through Friday, August 21. The closures are necessary to safely …Continue Reading Longfellow Bridge: August Closures Update

2 thoughts on “Customer Focus: Twitter”

I have to say for as prepared as we were for this storm it blows my mind that the City can’t figure out how to clean the walk way between the North End and Charlestown. That bridge is dangerous enough but with massive amounts of snow it took me nearly 30 min just to cross it yesterday. though yesterday the snow was falling quicker that possible to keep up with me, my mind is still blown that 24 hours after the storm there is a tiny path to walk the entire strech. two people can’t even pass unless one stands in knee deep dirty snow. I know that you can shovel OR better yet snowblow it into the water so why don’t you. There are too many people that commute both ways on this bridge to leave it in the horrid condition that it is currently in. Or leave it as is and pay when someone breaks thier leg from slipping on the walk!

Kendra, the EPA and a pile of regulations don’t allow snow dumping in waterways anymore. Its far better you or I are injured than fish! Snow will contain sand, salt, tire rubber, brake dust, petrochemicals and whatever trash people discard. Hauling it away everywhere is too expensive.